Eight years in the making, one of Salisbury's most-discussed projects may be ready to make the leap from drawing board to skateboard.

Contractors have submitted to Maryland's environmental regulators what they and city officials hope is the final revision to the drainage and erosion-control plans for a new skate park on South Park Drive.

Approval of the plans is shaping up to be the last of what have been many hurdles for the project. Workers could be breaking ground in as soon as a month, said Salisbury Community Development Director Deborah Stam.

"I am thrilled that we have finally gotten to the point where we're almost ready to break ground," said Stam, who has contributed $2,000 of her own money to help move the project along.

The weather will have to cooperate first, warming up enough for the ground to thaw, she said. Then, city officials will gather with the project's construction team to determine what items must be financed by the $216,000 budget and what can be donated.

Stam said she is looking for businesses and individuals to donate equipment and services, such as clean fill dirt, wood, concrete, landscaping and hotel rooms for the crew. The more that gets donated, the more the city can spend on the skating area itself, she added.

It took a village to get this far. Community contributions total nearly $20,000 so far, said Bobby Schaller, a skateboarding enthusiast and head of the skatepark committee, a nonprofit organization.

People can still help finance the project by buying bricks or granite monuments that will be placed in the skate park, he said. One of the biggest fund-raising challenges has been sustaining people's enthusiasm during the long planning delays, Schaller said.

"People have started to skate, skate a long time and then quit, waiting on this park," he said. "I'm not frustrated and our group's not frustrated, but I can see how someone would be."

The location itself remained up in the air for years as City Council members debated the merits of one site after another. They eventually settled on a spit of grass on the north side of South Park Drive a few hundred yards west of Beaglin Park Drive. The property is part of the City Park.

In addition to the 6,000-square-foot skating area, the park will include a parking area, restrooms and fencing. Construction is expected to take about 60 days.

The city has submitted a grant application to the state, seeking $383,000 for a second phase of construction that would add another 8,000 square feet of room, Stam said.

If awarded the money, Stam said she would seek to combine the two phases into one to spare construction money. The project was only divided into separate phases because of the state's constraints on grant funds.

"It's been a process, a long process," Schaller said But "it's never been as close as it is right now."

jcox6@dmg.gannett.com

410-845-4630

On Twitter @Jeremy_Cox

For more information on the Salisbury skate park committee's brick and monument sale and other donation opportunities, go to http://salisburysk8park.com.